Convergence: Eclipse Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Darkness

Read chapter 7 of Convergence: Eclipse by J.L.Hollingwell on NovelPedia.

When you choose the lesser of two evils, always remember that it is still an evil. — Max Lerner Laurie didn’t hesitate. He ran flat out towards the cave mouth, using every bit of his enhanced speed to put Pyro between him and the archer. “Fuck, he’s fast!” He heard one of them shout, followed by a crackle and whiz near his left ear as an arrow shot past. He ducked his head instinctively and kept running until the darkness of the cave wrapped around him. His shadow blade appeared in his hand, but it immediately vanished, the mana dissipating haphazardly. What the fuck, what the fuck. These weren’t boars, or spiders, they were people, actual people. Am I going to have to kill them?! No, he decided. I’m not a murderer. He couldn’t kill the first people he had met since everything went crazy. He just couldn’t. He would have to try to lose them in the cave instead, assuming it went deep enough, and he hadn’t just run into a literal dead end. The light from outside showed the first few metres of a tunnel that sloped gradually downwards into darkness. Laurie could hear pounding feet behind him, and rushed deeper into the cave, leaving the light behind him. It quickly became difficult to see, and he had to rely on his shadow sense more than his eyes. Laurie could feel the chill weight of the stone around him, the tunnel being only a few metres high and wide, but he couldn’t sense any turns or tunnels that he could try and disappear down. He channelled shadow mana to his feet, silencing his movements so he didn’t have to slow his pace. “Down!” It was the archer. Laurie couldn’t respond quickly enough and felt something slam into his left shoulder. The arrow dug through his armour piercing several inches into his flesh. The moment it broke his skin, lightning rushed through him and his whole body spasmed. He lost focus on everything as he fell, crashing into the side of the tunnel before hitting the floor, his body twitching as he collapsed. Laurie could see Pyro’s flaming sword moving closer, the bigger man’s outline faintly illuminated by its light. Laurie willed his body to move; Pyro must have seen him fall. Before he could will his body to action, Pyro closed the gap and raised his sword high above his head, ready to slash down. Laurie’s hands were still twitching uselessly, fingers scraping against the floor, but instinct took over, and he flooded his Light Flare glyph with mana, pushing every bit of mana he had into his brain. The glyph burned in his mind, pulsing like an expanding star. Two beams of light, white and dazzling, flared from his eyes, boring straight into Pyro’s face. The large man roared in pain and fell back, clutching at himself, his sword clattering to the floor. Laurie had no time to think; his body was responding to him again, so he scrambled to his feet and kept running. Little spots of light danced in his vision as he ran, popping like bubbles. He could hear the relentless drumbeat of arrows hitting the stone walls around him, but he kept moving, darting as erratically as he could in the limited space. As he ran, Laurie moved shadow mana back to his feet. Any thought of saving mana was gone. He knew he would have to use every bit of it to survive. It was truly dark this far into the cave, away from the light of Pyro’s sword. He closed his eyes, focusing on his shadow sense. It felt clearer than it ever had before. He nearly missed a turning to his left, catching sight of it just at the last second. He turned, hurling himself sideways into the void. He could hear Pyro screaming behind him, yelling obscenities and threats of death or worse. The sound followed without diminishing - clearly, Pyro had recovered from Laurie’s blinding spell and was once more in pursuit. He sounded like a berserking bear as he shouted and bellowed, the archer’s voice a cool counterpoint to Pyro’s anger. “Follow his blood!” Fuck. I didn’t think of that. These people, whoever they were, were not going to let him hide and escape, that